Caramel had a girl! {Click here to see her calf from last year.} The boys named her Ahsoka.. after Anakin’s Jedi Padawan in the Clone Wars…😉 Mike stayed home to check things out, and I drove the boys to youth group. We turned our adult class into a “field trip”, and I brought my friend Penny home with me. I assumed Mike would need help bringing down the new calf, but when we pulled in, we saw this in the field by the barn:

So we took Penny over to meet the other calves… They were excited to come see us and put on a pretty cute “show” for her.😏

It was a beautiful evening and a blessing to end it in prayer together.❤️

So how did Mike get baby and mama down to the barn on his own? Well – let’s just say he had some herding angels helping him.😇 All the dairy girls were riled up because of the new addition, so poor Ahsoka didn’t know which one was her mama. She travelled in and out of the fence as she avoided getting accidentally stepped on in all the confusion. By the time Mike got back up to the field with the halter & baby buggy, she was ready for a rest. He secured her in the wagon, and she had a safe trip down to the field by the barn all by herself. Then Mike headed back up to bring down Caramel. He figured he’d have to bring the whole herd down and then filter out Caramel in the barnyard; but when he got to the pasture, most of the girls had calmed down and gone back to grazing. That made it a little easier for Mike to lead Caramel out of the field without any others.👍

Here are the pics he managed to take in the process:

Ahsoka had a good night with her mama, and this morning, the boys brought Ahsoka to the barn. Other than a brief rest, she made the trip without any issues.😊

Vader had a brief stubborn moment and decided he was done walking. We are pretty sure he is the largest calf yet, so Mike tried pretty hard to convince him to walk the last stretch so he wouldn’t need carried…😉

He briefly met Gungi as we brought him out of the barn so Vader could have his spot.

This calf has taken FOREVER to pop out, lol… We cancelled our plans to visit with my Cleveland family on Sunday afternoon because she looked super loose and we wanted to be available to help her if necessary. But she never had it Sunday. Then we missed some baseball on Monday so we could run home & keep up with checking on her every 3 hours for any changes. But nothin’. And so went Tuesday, and Wednesday… We really felt the pull of that difficult line of where: making-yourself-available is very close to: you-are-acting-like-God-can’t-handle-this-without-you.😳 Sooo many good life lessons from farming!😊

And now we see a better picture of “why” Banana progressed as she did. The Lord was preparing her to have her first calf completely unassisted and without an audience. And we are pretty sure her calf is the largest one so far, as well. Mike and Michael were delighted this morning to find this in the field:

It’s a boy! His name is Gungi. (Apparently he is named after the only Wookie Jedi, as featured in the Clone Wars, lol.)😉

Before we could bring those two down to the barn, we moved Han over to join Chewy and Leia next door.

He was pretty resistant to the walk at first, and tried to play possom…😉

But he eventually caught on to the idea of walking…👍

He was a bit apprehensive of trudging through our flooded yard… But some gentle persuasion helped.👍

He made it just fine.👍

It’s a muddy mess right now, but thankfully that is just for a “season”…😊

Then we headed back up in the rain and thunder to bring down Banana and Gungi. Pictures were difficult with all the rain and keeping feet stable in sloshy mud, but Paul did a nice job taking some pics for us since I drove the baby cart down to the barn today.👍

Now we needed to make a decision. Leave calf with mama for the night or just bring them down to the barn now…?

After observing them for awhile, we decided to bring them down to the barn, milk Gluey, and feed Padme. Gluey was a muddy mess, seemed to like staying close to the fence, and with more rain in the forecast, we thought it best not to wait until tomorrow.

We were really thankful the boys’ baseball was cancelled for tonight! It was nice having them here to help.👍

Paul & I walked behind Gluey, and Michael drove the baby cart…

Gluey got a good scrub down…😉

And she milked plenty of colostrum for Padme.👍

Plus we got a special show from her half-brother, Han, as he danced around in excitement, lol…😜